The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-08-27
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
HEAT FORM LIQUID FUEL.

HEAT FORM LIQUID FUEL.
Naphtha which is burned in locomotives in the
Caudasus, yields ninety per cent. of its theoretc
heating power while not more than sixty per cent.
can be realized from solid fuel. Petroleum is now
the sole combustible of ships in the Caspian Sea,
and only half as much is required was for merly
used of coal. The maximum force obtainable from
coal is said to be only two-ffths of that which
petroleum may furnish and the railway expert
ments have shown that given weight of naphtha
will take the place of eight and half times the
weight of wood, although the theoretical differ
ence is only as three to one.
CHEAP SODIUM.
Cashiers new sodium preparing process, in
which caustic soda is distilled with an intimate
mixture of coke and very finely divided iron,
proves capable of successful working on a large
scale, and it is expected to reduce the cost Of
sodium to less than fourth of its present price.
AS sodium has been largely used in the produc-
tion of aluminium, this will greatly cheaper the
old method of obtaining what must become one of
the most important metals of the future.
THE GAs-MAKERs' WASTE.
In recent address to the Royal Institute of
London, Sir Henry Roscoe illustrated the amount
of cooring-power stored in coal by tables showing
that one pound of the mineral yields magenta suf-
cent to color 500 yards of flannel, aurine for 120
yards of flannel 81 inches wide, vermilline scarlet
for $500 yards of flannel, alizarin for 255 yards
l.
some waste of the gas industry, affords us about
twelve oranges more than thirty reds, about ff-
teen blues, seven greens, nine violets, and num-
ber of browns and blacks, besides mixtures of the
several chemical compounds, producing an almost
infinite number of shades and tones of color. 1t
furnishes kairne, antipyrine and thalline, which
are valuable medicine, in fevers, and are in many
respects superior to quinine for lowering bodily
temperature. 1t also gives US the artificial aromatic
essences, including cumarine, the principle Of
"new-mo hay - vanilline, from which is pro-
duced "essence of heliotrope :" mirbane, a soap.
perfume, and the artificial oil of bitter almonds
Probably the most remarkable of all coal-tar pro-
ducts, of which the preparation of complete list
would be serious task, is saccharine, which is
more than 200 times as sweet as sugar, and offers
US a sweetening agent that is not food and has
no effect upon the body.
THE REPTILES.
The tortoises are estimated by Hoffman, to
number somewhat more than $50 species. Their
home is in the tropic and temperate regions, their
northern limit being the iftieth or fifty fifth par
allel. About forty species found in the United
States, and only five in Europe. The elephant
turtle attains a weight of 500 pounds, while a
fossil tortoise of India appears to have been not
less than fifteen or twenty feet long. The lizards
are estimated by Gunther to embrace about LOO
species, chiefly confined to the hot portions of the
earth, and comparatively seldom passing the for
tieth parallel. The serpents or snakes like all
other reptiles, are most numerous in the tropics,
and rapidly diminish toward either pole. 1t may
be safely assumed that considerably more than
1000 species are known to naturalists, of which
nearly half found in British and Farther India
and the East Indian Archipelago. Some $50
species inhabit North America north of Mexico.
The crocodies and alligators include only some
twenty five more or less wel-defned species of
the tropics and ub-tropics. Two species enter
the United States The crocodies date from an
early geological period, and no less than forty
fossil species are found in British strata alone
An ancient species of India must have attained a
length of fifty or sixty feet.
AN IMPORTANT FIND.
Two skeletons dug up several months ago in a
cave near the Orneau, in Belgium, appear to be-
long to the oldest race of which any distinct re-
cord exists. These prehistoric individuals were
contemporary with the mammoth, and inhabited
the country before the great ice age They were
short and thick-set, with broad shoulders, sup
porting long and narrow head with an extreme
ly low forehead.
MISCELLANEOUS
new asparagus found in the steppes of Akhal
Texts, lately annexed by Russia, is said to have
stalks nearly as thick as mans arm and growing
to height of five or six feet. In flavor it equals
the best cultivated varieties.
German mathematician has calculated that
the snowfall of Central Germany from December
10 to 90 weighed no less than 100000 tons in
the area between so deg. and 52.5 deg. N. lat and
between deg. and Is deg E. long.
A recent computation makes the velocity of the
solar system in space only about 100000 miles
year. By different method, another computer
had determined the rate to be about 525,0OO,OOO
miles in year.
A French instrument for recording the rolling
of vessel at sea was lately tried on the voyage
of steamship from Bordeaux to Brazil, and made
a tolerably accurate register of the motion.
To aid in an analysis of noise, Prof. Crum
Brown, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, hopes
to be able to make machine to give very loud
limitations of vocal sounds. He expects the ap
paratus to hiss with thousand man power.
During the last century 100 lakes in the Tyrol
have subsded and disappeared, according to Dr.
A. Bohm, of the Geographical Society of Vienna.
leaf of the giant water-liy (Victoria regia)
has been known to measure "a feet 81 inches
in circumference, its weight being nearly IA
pounds. One of the flowers was feet inches in
circumference, with petals inches in length,
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